Chapter 1214
Oct. 19. 1888. | 25 Stat., 611.

An act authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to accept the surrender of and cancel land patents to Indians in certain cases.a

aSection 1 of this act is special, and only so much is here retained as is necessary to an understanding of section 2, which contains the only general legislation in the act.

Be it enacted, &c., That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to accept the surrender of and to cancel patents conveving the land therein described and issued to the following-named * * * Indians, * * * and to allot and patent to said Indians, under the act of February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty seven, such lands as they would be thereby entitled to had no previous patents to them severally been made.

The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, in his discretion, and whenever for good and sufficient reason he shall consider it to be for the best interest of the Indians, in making allotments under the statute aforesaid, to permit any Indian to whom a patent has been issued for land on the reservation to which such Indian belongs, under treaty or existing law, to surrender such patent with formal relinquishment by such Indian to the United States of all his or her right, title, and interest in the land conveyed thereby, properly indorsed thereon, and to cancel such surrendered patent:

Provided, That the Indian so surrendering the same shall make a selection, in lieu thereof, of other land and receive patent therefor, under the provisions of the act of February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven. [October 19, 1888.]